WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 1© ECMWF ECMWF Web re-engineering project Baudouin Raoult Head of Data and Services Section European Centre for Medium-Range.

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 1 © ECMWF

ECMWF Web re-engineering project

Baudouin Raoult

Head of Data and Services Section European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 2 © ECMWF

Belgium Ireland PortugalDenmark Italy SwitzerlandGermany Luxembourg FinlandSpain The Netherlands SwedenFrance Norway TurkeyGreece Austria United Kingdom

Co-operation agreements or working arrangements with:Czech Republic Montenegro ACMADCroatia Morocco ESAEstonia Romania EUMETSAT Hungary Serbia WMOIceland Slovakia JRC Latvia Slovenia CTBTOLithuania CLRTAP

ECMWF: Supporting States and Co-operation

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 3 © ECMWF

ECMWF: Objectives

Operational forecasting up to 15 days ahead (including waves)

R & D activities in forecast modelling

Data archiving and related services

Operational forecasts for the coming month and season

Advanced NWP training

Provision of supercomputer resources

Assistance to WMO programmes

Management of Regional Meteorological Data Communications Network (RMDCN)

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 4 © ECMWF

Dealing with large amount of multi-dimensional data

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 5 © ECMWF

Dealing with large amount of multi-dimensional data (cont.)

Forecasts run several time a day, providing regular update of the possible future

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 6 © ECMWF

Dealing with large amount of multi-dimensional data (cont.)

Each model grid point represent hundreds of meteorological variables: temperature, pressure, precipitations, …

The atmosphere is split vertically into many levels

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 7 © ECMWF

Dealing with large amount of multi-dimensional data (cont.)

Ensemble Forecasts: capturing the chaotic nature of the atmosphere

Forecast many equally possible futures

Forecast time

Tem

pera

ture

Initial condition Forecast

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 8 © ECMWF

Dealing with large amount of multi-dimensional data (cont.)

Meteorological data is multi-dimensional– 3 dimensions of space– 2 dimensions of time (analysis time, forecast time)

●… and many more for ensemble prediction systems (many possible futures)

– 100s of variables (Temperature, Wind, Clouds, Humidity,…)– many different models

●Short range, Medium range, Monthly, Seasonal, …●Global, Limited area●From several NWP centres around the world

Current web interfaces are limited to:– 2 space dimensions (screen)– 1 time dimension (animation)– 4 colour dimensions (red, green, blue and transparency)

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 9 © ECMWF

Dealing with large amount of multi-dimensional data (cont.)

Make full use of available graphical tools– Layering– Colour, transparency, symbols– Animations– Re-projections

Provide statistical analysis tools– Means, probabilities, clustering, …– Time series, cross-sections, …

Give the user full control over these tools– … so they can choose what suit their current workflow– Requires the ability to run these tools “on-demand”, based on user input,

in a reasonable time (e.g. <10s)

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 10 © ECMWF 10

ECMWF Web re-engineering project:

Motivations– Increasing use by our supporting states and many commercial customers of

our web products●Demand for a high availability service

– Users request more tailored products●Requires on-demand plot production

Goals– Redesign the web infrastructure so that the web service is highly available– Provide more interactivity (e.g. zoom, pan, overlay parameters)– Allow product customisation (e.g. control the event threshold on

probability maps)– Use open (OGC) standards so that ECMWF products can be embedded in

users’ own software Aimed directly at our Member States forecasters and commercial customers

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 11 © ECMWF 11

Gathering of user requirements

The project has been presented on several occasions

Consultation process will continue throughout the project

Focus on usability

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 12 © ECMWF 12

Application 1: Web based forecasting tool

Fully Interactive: – zooming, panning, …– animations

Customisation:– Probabilities threshold, …– Show/hide, add/remove layers

Associated tools: e.g. meteograms For expert users (forecasters)

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 13 © ECMWF 13

Application 2: Product catalogue

Browsable and searchable graphical product catalogue Limited interactivity – Preset number of projections, animation Intended to be used by a wider audience

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 14 © ECMWF 14

So that ECMWF products can be directly embedded in the forecasters’ workstations application

All products accessible via WMS protocol:– “GetCapabilities” document build dynamically from product catalogue

content– Layers are created on-demand

Challenges: - access control- time dimension- customisation

Application 3: OGC Web Map Services

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 15 © ECMWF

Forecasting tool main user interface

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 16 © ECMWF

Predefined projections

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 17 © ECMWF

Multi-layer maps

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 18 © ECMWF

Controlling style

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 19 © ECMWF

Controlling style (cont.)

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 20 © ECMWF

Handling time dimensions

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 21 © ECMWF

EPS data: probability maps

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 22 © ECMWF

EPS data: probability maps (cont.)

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 23 © ECMWF

EPS data: probability maps (cont.)

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 24 © ECMWF

Data exploring tools

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 25 © ECMWF

Data exploring tools (cont.)

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 26 © ECMWF 26

Project Status

Half way into the project– Alpha test with forecasters from our Member States will start soon

Infrastructure work– Security and access control– Monitoring, alerts and service statistics– Management tools– Performance tuning

Product development– Clustering– Tropical cyclone tracks– Extreme forecast indices– Monthly and seasonal products– Quality and performance scores – …

WIS Enablers, Geneva 2010 - 27 © ECMWF 27

Thank you